Free Xbox game Monster Burner appears, lighting up Windows Phone

Since last week we’ve been undergoing a small communications hitch with Microsoft’s gaming division that will hopefully be cleared up soon. Earlier this week though, French site MonWindowsPhone passed along the news that N.O.V.A. 3 would be today’s Xbox release, so we reported it as such. Of course we asked Gameloft to verify the release date, but they could only say for certain that it will come out in May – not specifically today.

A short while ago, a different Xbox Windows Phone game popped up in the Store: Monster Burner from Ubisoft! That’s not a bad thing, because it’s FREE, seems like a fantastic game, and runs on both Windows Phone 7 and 8. But given that Gameloft couldn’t say for sure whether N.O.V.A. 3 will come out today, we are left slightly unsure about its release status. Will we get one Xbox game this week or two?

That question aside, most of you guys will dig Monster Burner in a big way. Read on for our first impressions.

Fahrenheit 451 style

Monster Burner is an action puzzle game that involves a lot of… you guessed it: burning monsters! In each level, hordes of cute and well-drawn monsters advance from the top of the screen towards the bottom. To stop their deadly, you’ll need to flick fireball after fireball. The more monsters each fireball hits, the higher your combo and score.

Naturally tougher and more interesting enemies will come along, including some that take more hits to kill, stop fireballs in their tracks, or can only be hit at certain times. They’ll occasionally drop valuable coins, power ups, and scoring items that you must tap to collect. Oh, and princesses will run out amongst the monster hordes as well. Collect them quickly and don’t burn them to death by mistake!

Modes and money

This may be a free game, but it packs a fair variety of modes to keep players busy. The main game type consists of six unique areas plus a Challenge map of some type. Gold Rush mode is a great way to earn gold, though it can only be played every six hours. The Daily Level will keep players coming back; you can play it more than once a day if you like. Four Seasons mode challenges players to beat their friends’ scores. The store description mentions a Children's Mode but I haven't found how to access it yet.

Monster Burner is free, but of course it’s monetized with In-App Purchases. Almost everything in the shop costs coins, which players can earn on their own or buy with real money. But one upgrade, a permanent 2X coin multiplier (which I would’ve loved in Gravity Guy 2) costs two bucks and can’t be bought with coins. Remember, this is a Windows Phone 7 game (surprisingly), so the IAPs require Microsoft Points instead of credit card or PayPal like Windows Phone 8 IAPs. That’s fine for me though, because I had Points to spare.

Get your matches ready!

Interestingly, Monster Burner originated as an iOS game but appears to have been pulled from iTunes recently. That means Windows Phone is the only way to play it right now – score one for Microsoft’s OS, temporary or not! Plus, this brings us one step closer to Rayman Jungle Run which Ubisoft announced at the same time back in February…

Monster Burner is a 33 MB download and runs on both Windows Phone 7 and 8. Get it for free here at the Windows Phone Store.

I played it today and it was actually really fun. My only complaint is all the leaderboard stuff. I mean I know people are into that kinda thing, but it only makes the game look cluttered and feel slower on loads for people like me who don't care and just want to play the game.

Cheevos r pretty good there r a couple that r either gonna take along time or a few m$points! Its only crashed on me once, a bit laggy, leaderboards r not working at all now, but I still cant stop playing it!!love it!!

Not too exited by another game that has ton of in game purchases to be enjoyable. I would rather pay $5 strait up instead of being micro-transacted to death and potentially spending a lot more than I should on a mobile game.

It's not saving money, it's crippling the game design. Between buying an iap for 2 Euros or buying a full game for 2.39, I prefer the latter. This "freemium" thing is only good for people who likes glorified demos.

The design isn't crippled. You can either earn coins slowly or quickly, but it's still a fun puzzle game either way. It doesn't seem like you look at the game before writing it off based on the payment model.

If you look in the guide the app claims to have world leaderboards, but they're definitely not there. Does Xbox for windows phone 8 even support global leaderboards? Truly wish they did, it would drive me to play these games do much more.

Xbox WP does not have a global leaderboard API. But some games take it upon themselves to create their own custom global leaderboards. It does sound like the description might be inaccurate since the kids mode seems to be missing.

Thanks for the quick response. Did the five-part editorial on how Microsoft can make WP Xbox gaming better address this? I would love to read that. Also, I wonder if they simply ported their iOS app without changing the guide, as a result keeping the missing features..

When did the download limit change from 25MB for mobile network downloads? I just wasted 33MB on a limited data plan, expecting this to queue for when I got home. It was over half done before I thought to cancel it.

Well, you could buy a second phone specifically for that purpose. But websites can also be viewed from PCs, laptops, tablets, etc., so scanning the QR from one of those devices will probably be much cheaper in the long run. ;)